


These Haunted Memories

by susieutting



Category: Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Broken Reader, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Gen, Heavy Angst, I'm Sorry, Loss of Parent(s), Memories, Suicide, much pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:26:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27868346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/susieutting/pseuds/susieutting
Summary: Sometimes memories are the worst form of torture.AU that while you are on an exploration with Lara, she dies, and you’re left there with her body, thinking about all the moments that the two of you had shared over the years.
Relationships: Lara Croft & Reader, Lara Croft & her father
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	These Haunted Memories

**Author's Note:**

> For Alla. (I'm sorry but imma warn you now, you're gonna cry a lot - you love me really)
> 
> This is the longer version of an AU I wrote for a friend on Instagram. She made an amazing edit of it and so I thought I'd write more on here for her :)
> 
> (I'll put the shorter version right at the bottom incase anyone wants to read it)

[full version]

You race along the cobbled path, aiming for the archway ahead of you. Your camera bounces around your neck as you run and you catch hold of it to stop it from breaking. Entering the tunnel, you pause, chest heaving as you listen to the sounds of the island around you. 

The two paths ahead of you both disappear downwards into the dark. The darkness seems to radiate an evil energy and you shudder involuntarily. There’s an echo from the one to your left which sounds vaguely like shouting and you set off again towards it, hoping that your mind isn’t playing tricks on you.

When you enter the room at the end, you stop again, this time in shock. There she kneels, in front of you. Your best friend. She has one palm on the floor and her back is to the doorway.

You don’t notice it at first but then you see it. A gun pressed to her temple.

You start to call out her name, and she seems to freeze for an instant as if realising that she isn’t alone in here. She doesn’t move though and you continue to stare at the back of her head, unsure what is going on.

“I’m sorry.” Her words come out in barely a whisper but you can still make them out. Fear fills your body as she says one last word. “Goodbye.”

Your brain finally figures out what she is about to do, but before you can react there is a sudden ringing in your ears that doesn’t go away, no matter how hard you try to swallow and there’s something warm on your face. 

Lara collapses onto the floor in front of you, a pool of bright crimson blood slowly begins to spread from the bullet wound in her head, creeping towards the toes of your boots.

* * *

The first time you met Lara Croft was at age 5, and the only thought running through your head was ‘I want to be like her’. She seemed so fearless, and wasn't afraid to stand up to teachers and big girls alike at school, no matter the consequences. Even when the older ones picked on smaller girls she was there, protecting those who couldn’t defend themselves. 

The two of you were inseparable from the moment you met, and being friends with Lara had its pros and cons. She was popular, which meant that as her best friend, you were respected in a way that would never have happened had you not met her, but it also meant that the teachers were quick to blame the two of you if anything happened. 

Unfortunately, Lara enjoyed pulling pranks on the mistresses, and although they were fun while they lasted, they did seem to always end rather badly.

When you were 7, she once decided to put chalk on the music teacher’s piano stool, and then when she stood up, there was a huge patch of chalk on her skirt. Everyone thought it was hilarious, especially as the teacher had no idea what you were all giggling at. That was until it turned out the mistress was allergic to chalk and had to be rushed to the hospital. 

Even as a child, she would come back with tales of where she and her father had been during the holidays. They were both terrifying and exhilarating to hear, and the stories used to spread through the school, being told over and over again until they resembled nothing like what had really happened.

Lots of the stories that were whispered about her throughout the school were true - you’d been there for a lot of them - although many people believed they were only myths. Whenever anything exciting or out of the ordinary happened, Lara was bound to have something to do with it.

However, there was one story that she hated to the very core of her being, and no matter how many people looked at her in awe as she walked by, no one _ever_ mentioned it. At least, not while she was around. 

* * *

It was during your first year in the boarding houses at school, which was also the first time you had ever stayed away from home. You were both 11 at the time, and Lara helped you through the first night when you had cried yourself to sleep in your pillow. 

She lay next to you in the thin creaking bed, whispering in your ear that it was okay, that you’d get used to it soon enough. She was right of course, it didn’t take long before you found that the endless sleepovers were better than any night you had ever had back at home.

During February half term, you had been allowed to go and spend the week at Lara’s. Her dad was home and for once wasn’t taking his daughter away adventuring anywhere. The grounds of Croft Manor were huge, and the two of you chased each other around the winding pathways, inventing games and characters that kept you entertained for hours.

Suddenly, a loud bang echoed from the house and Lara was sprinting towards the stone structure before you could ask her what was going on. You hurried after her, catching up only after you had followed the sounds of her screams through the corridors to her father’s study. 

You stood there by the open door and watched as she tapped her father's shoulder. He was lying slumped on his desk, and you could see something dark dripping down onto the carpet from the table. Her screams attracted attention from some of the household staff who came running and one pulled her away while she screamed and cried and fought and kicked to get back to her father’s limp body.

You never knew how anyone at school found out what had happened, but from that day on, things changed. Lara didn’t pull pranks any more. All the joy and light that had been in her life had been snuffed out like a candle when her father died, and she just wasn’t the same. 

No matter how hard people tried to pull you apart, the two of you always found a way to stay together because even though she didn’t show it, you knew that she needed you now just as much as you needed her. It was like you were the only thing left that she had to hold on to, and so you swore to yourself that you would always be there for her.

She never believed what they had said about how her father had died. No matter how many explanations they gave, she refused to believe that he had killed himself. You knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t joke about something like this. She wouldn't make stuff up just to hide her grief, and so you believed her. She had never given you a reason not to.

* * *

During the years that you spent together, her reputation only grew, as the stories were passed down through the years. You did notice more of her old self coming back gradually, but she was never quite the same as she used to be. As you grew older, the younger students would follow the two of you around, whispering stories to one another about Lara Croft. 

When she turned 17, the first thing you did when she got her driving licence was spend the entire night driving around, just talking. Those were the moments you loved best. When the two of you were either sitting on the roof of the dormitory at school, looking up at the stars or somewhere in the grounds of her home watching clouds fly by overhead. 

The two of you could talk for hours about anything, but most of all, she talked about her father. What he was like, the sort of work he had done when he had gone away for weeks on end, all over the world.

She had always spoken of following him into doing what he had done. Finding treasures that had been hidden long ago. Discovering civilisations that had been lost for centuries, but mainly it was the sense of adventure that she wanted.

She always said that there had to be more to life than chalkboards and school desks. She used to spend hours in the library while you read or did homework, pouring over ancient textbooks about old artefacts and places that people had looked to try to find them. History and geography were her favourite subjects, and she was always top in those two.

* * *

Only a week ago you had both been packing to come away on this expedition to try and find some sort of ancient Egyptian artefact. You were documenting the find and taking pictures of the island, which Lara would then use later on. 

“Hey y/n,” Lara greets you from the other side of the small room. You look up and see her standing in the doorway, arms crossed as she leans against the wooden frame. You smile as she pushes away from it and wanders over to where you are sitting at your desk. She drops down onto the bed the other side of the desk and she peeks at what you are working on.

She pulls one of your photographs across the wooden surface towards her so she can get a better look.

“This is so good!” she says, and you blush slightly, embarrassed. 

“Yeah, it's alright I guess. The sun was in the wrong place so it's not exactly what I wanted.”

She laughs at what you say, shaking her head at you. She's always telling you that you don't give yourself enough credit for your work. 

“Oh, I came to tell you that we’re approaching the port,” she says. “Looks like it’s gonna rain, so make sure you bring your coat,” she adds as she makes her way out of your cabin.

* * *

Your mind flashes through all these memories as you see her body lying on the floor, desperately trying to deny what all logic told you was real. She was alive, this was all fake. Someone was pulling a trick on you and she would come running in any second and pull you into an embrace. You would smell the familiar scent of fresh linen from her clothes mixed with the scent of peaches from the soap she used.

Someone is screaming, and you slowly realise that the noise is coming from you. You register a stinging pain in your knees from where you had fallen to the floor, but you ignore it. As you sit there, cradling her lifeless body in your arms you sob, pressing your face into her shoulder as your body shakes uncontrollably.

Time is relative. You could have been there for only minutes or it could have been hours, you don't know. The only thing your brain does understand is that your best friend is lying in front of you on the cold stone floor, gone from this world. She is gone, and that this time you’d been unable to save her.

[shorter version]

Your best friend is kneeling on the floor in front of you with her back to the door, one palm on the floor in front of her.

With a gun pressed to her temple.

You start to call out her name, and she seems to freeze for an instant as if realising that she isn’t alone in here. She doesn’t move though and you continue to stare at the back of her head, unsure what is going on.

“I’m sorry.” Her words come out in barely a whisper but you can still make them out. Fear fills your body as she says one last word. “Goodbye.”

Your brain finally figures out what she is about to do, but before you can react there is a sudden ringing in your ears that doesn’t go away, no matter how hard you try to swallow. There’s something warm on your face. 

Lara collapses onto the floor in front of you, a pool of bright crimson blood slowly begins to spread from the bullet wound in her head, creeping towards the toes of your boots.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are always very much appreciated.
> 
> (ALLA - I hope you liked it <3 )


End file.
